Monday, 22 March 2021
Back in my community over the weekend, there were many, many questions about the vaccine rollout. Indeed, Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister, promised that four million COVID vaccine doses would be delivered to people by the end of March. Now, with only a week and a half left, not more than 280,000 Australians have received this vaccine. Australians in my community and around the country know that our ticket out of this pandemic and back to normality is a vaccine. It has been tough for Australians, who look at their overseas counterparts and see the fast rollouts there.
My office has received many, many calls from individuals who are eligible to get their vaccine from today but who are still unsure how or where they’re going to receive it. One man in his 70s was told by his GP that they didn’t have any information about the rollout. They asked him to call back in a month. Another woman was told that she was part of stage 1b due to her chronic health condition. She called my office out of frustration. After trying all day to get through to a clinic to book her vaccination, her phone calls kept going unanswered. I heard from an aged-care worker who should already have received this vaccine. Her workplace told her that it would be two to three months away.
This is just not good enough. We need more than spin from this Prime Minister. We need delivery.